Michigan's item pricing is costly, outdated

[Dave]

As most of us all shop in stores of some sort most days, we've all noticed how everything is priced separately.... the days of every single item being priced could be numbered. Governor Rick Snyder in his State Of The State address mentioned that he wants to do away with the Michigan pricing law in the near future. Being in the retail sector myself, I can say without any doubt that from my perspective that it would be a godsend. I do understand the concerns of many shoppers that not having every item individually priced, that it can be an issue on how much a certain item is. What most people don't realize is that Michigan is the only state with a pricing law... most states have no law and a few have very lax pricing laws. When you go to other states, do you ever notice that not every item is not marked? Granted I don't make it out of state as much as I use to but I've never really noticed such an issue whenever I have left the state. Another reason this would be a godsend for businesses such as the one as I work at is simply for when we have to do price changes. As it stands right now, doing price changes is extremely time consuming.. as you have to not only change the self tag but you also have to reprice every single item per price change. There are times when there are literally 100's of price changes that have to be done and when you factor that some of those items that need a price change might have 25 or 50 or more individual items to reprice, well you can see where that is going to be time consuming. It would also make stocking items so much easier for us as we can simply take the item out of the box and put it on the shelf or on the hook. Anyhow, judging by the study recently done, the law might be outdated, myself, I hope that Rick Snyder's idea to do away with the law comes to fruition.

 

Michigan’s strictest-in-the-nation item pricing law adds $2.2 billion to retail costs in the state without providing tangible benefits to consumers, according to a study commissioned by the state’s retailers and released this morning.

The costs of complying with the regulation is reflected in higher prices and reduced customer service compared to other jurisdictions without an item-pricing requirement, said the study’s lead author, Scott Watkins of the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing, reinforcing the impression that Michigan is stuck in the 20th Century.

Watkins extrapolated the $2.2-billion cost in Michigan from a price study conducted in 2007 between Westchester County, N.Y., which then had strict item-pricing requirements, and neighboring New Jersey, which did not.

James Hallan, president of the Michigan Retailers Association, said at a news conference announcing the study results that the expense of item pricing leads to higher prices and prevents stores in Michigan from deploying new technology or customer service employees to other tasks.

Hallan acknowledged the Michigan law, enacted in 1978, remains popular with many shoppers. “Change is hard,” he said, but somehow those same shoppers don’t find their consumer experience spoiled when they visit any of the 49 other states with no, or less stringent, item pricing requirements, he said.

Gov. Rick Snyder in his State of the State address last week called for repeal of the state’s item pricing law. Legislation to amend the law has not yet been introduced.

Contact Dawson Bell: 517-372-8661 or [e-mail]

Read more: Study: Michigan's item pricing is costly, outdated | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/20110124/NEWS06/110124026/Study-Michig...

[XLFD]

The Nerd doesn't like price tags, apparently. 

I can see your point, Dave.  I like the extra protection of individual price tags, but I like smaller prices better.  $2.2 Billion ?!  Perhaps it's time to debate this.  Here is the Michigan law:

http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(2zsi3555kq1sqv55jtl0oquw))/mileg.a...

[Dave]

I think we Michiganders will have a hard time adjusting to no price tags simply for the fact that its what we've are accustomed to after it being awhile as they have. Once we've had a chance to adjust to things, I think we'll be ok with it... its just going to be that in between time that will suck for the consumer.

Like I say though, its going to save us a tremendous amount of time in doing things... just the time saved with price changes is going to be incredible. There are days in my department where there will be a person doing price changes and it will literally take them their whole shift one day and into the next day to get them done. And then the next week there might be 100 more to do. With a little luck, not having to price will free up time so that there can be more people available for customer service.

[Sweater Cows!]

Whenever I am looking for a price on something I never can find it anyway or it is covering up useful info about the product(calories, serving size, exp. date).

 

I would not mind seeing them do away with this law, but they should put in an addendum that all price tags need to be in at least size 36 font(whatever that is) I think 3/8 of an inch would be a good minimum size or bigger font on the tags that are for a group of items.

[Willy]

Does anyone really think there will be a savings of 2.2 billion dollars, c'mon? And do you believe any savings will be passed on to the customer? If the tags on seperate items are so time consuming and will save so many emplyoyee hours then I assume we will be seeing a lot of lay offs due to less work being available, at least 2 billion dollars less. I don't care if the tags are on seperate items or not. My concern is that the shelf tags are clearly labeled and easy to read, unlike the small print they now have. I've seen people getting on their knees trying to read the shelf tags on the lower shelves. Another thing, when you check out, how can you compare the price of the item with the price charged at the register. If you have a shopping cart full of food how would you know that your not being over charged?

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

That was funny RJ.. I went to reply to your post but you must have gone back to correct grammar or something as it told me page not available??  :)

[Willy]

Yes. That is what I did.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

I agree with the synopsis that it is next to impossible to go back through a cart full of groceries if non of the items have tags on them.

I now live in a state that does not mandate individual tags and not only are not the food prices necessarily lower But some items you find out after you purchase that that you had to buy the correct number of items for the advertised discount to be applied . Try going back through all your ads then to see if they were doing as they are supposed to.

I tend to disagree on the part about the cost of compliance to MI pricing laws. I know when I worked at two different retail stores that the stores did employ several additional people to do nothing but make sure the items did ring up at the correct price as in MI we had folks who would do nothing but go store to store trying to tag and get the 10 times item fee on as many items as they could.

 

One even came through my line trying to get the price difference even though the price she was disputing was lower than the marked price... go figure.

[XLFD]

Hey Dave, this might have slipped under your radar even though you brought it up and are influenced by it in your job, but the 30 year old price tag law is officially off the books.  Here's the update:

http://www.freep.com/article/20110901/BUSINESS06/109010502/Price-ta...

 

[Dave]

Oh no, I know all about it.. its going to have its good and bad points as I'm sure I probably already mentioned somewhere in this thread. Mostly its going to be both customers and employees adjusting to the whole thing. There will be plenty of customer complaints if they can't figure out a price on something, actually have already had a few complaints. On the other hand its so much quicker to get freight up now.. I can literally do it in half the time if not quicker. From a employee stand point, I love it so far... we'll see how much of a bother it is though as priced product slowly makes its way off the shelves, replaced by product not priced.

[Willy]

If the goods to be sold can be stocked in half the time I guess the stores will need only half the employees. My problem with no tags is when a customer cashes out how can they compare the price of the product with the price that the register rings up. If someone buys one item I can see no problems but someone who buys a cart full is going to be at the mercy of the store and we all know there are stores that have a different price at the shelf and a different price at the checkout. A customer has to be wary of this practice. I think repealing this law is a bad idea.

[Dave]

Everyone will get use to the new system.. could be soon, could be awhile... but keep in mind to that Michigan was the only state that required pricing of nearly all merchandise. A customer that's paying attention will know what a price should of been.. many people are shopping with ads in hand or coupons so they are aware more times then not.

[Lisa O'Brien]

If the store was smart they would use this as an opprotunity to improve customer service - shelf tags that don't require the customer to bring in a magnifying glass, price scanners positioned throughout the store, lower costing on items. If they make shopping a more enjoyable experience the increased business would allow the staff that retagged items to be moved over to cashier positions.